Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-198) and index.
Contents:
Prologue : a new kind of technician : in search of the culture of public history -- A matter of national dignity : education and federal authority -- Managing the landscape : national parks, national monuments, and the use of public land -- Losing their identity : National Park Service museums and federal collections -- Ignorant and local-minded influences : historic sites and the expansion of the National Park Service -- Real park service men : on the ground and in the books -- Park service diggers : public historians and the problem of status -- Conclusion : toward a new genealogy of public history.
Summary:
"The rapid expansion of the field of public history since the 1970s has led many to believe that it is a relatively new profession. In this book, Denise D. Meringolo shows that the roots of public history actually reach back to the nineteenth century, when the federal government entered into the work of collecting and preserving the nation's natural and cultural resources. Yet it was not until the emergence of the education-oriented National Park Service history program in the 1920s and 1930s that public history found an institutional home. Even then, tensions between administrators in Washington and practitioners on the ground at National Parks, monuments, and museums continued to redefine the scope and substance of the field. The process of definition persists to this day as public historians establish a growing presence in major universities throughout the United States and abroad."--Page 4 of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.